A compilation of thoughts, experiments, and ideas: The journey of an artist.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Man in the Mirror

I started to work on another reflection piece but on a much smaller sized canvas that I've been becoming familiar with. This is the third painting that I've done on a 12"x40" and I'm absolutely loving this size! So much more interesting than the common canvas proportions, and I like the time the canvas allows for eyes to dance across the span of the surface. Here are some photos of my process. I don't have a picture of where this painting is currently at, but keep checking my website for updates on finished pieces!

Take notice of the picture on top of my painting in the second photo. I manipulated the original image I took of the nail polishes in photoshop, and rearranged the bottles to work better on the 12"x40" canvas. In the last photo you can see that I have the original photo on top of my piece. After I sketched everything out I went back to this photo for color and detail information that was lost in the photo that was manipulated in photoshop.

As you will see in this painting and in all of my paintings, I make a lot of changes to the subject as I paint. Sometimes I change the color, the composition, leave things out, or put things in. In my reference photo I realized the cast shadows of the nail polishes were way too strong and busy. I wanted the focus of my painting to be on the glass reflection, so I decided to keep the cast shadows out.

What you should take away from this... Never be a slave to photo references!